Inter-Korea

38 North: N. Korea Begins Dismantling Test Site Facilities

North Korea has reportedly begun to dismantle a missile engine testing site in line with an agreement the regime’s leader Kim Jong-un made with U.S. President Donald Trump at their summit last month.

U.S. Web site 38 North reported on Monday that commercial satellite imagery from July 20th shows key facilities being dismantled at the Sohae Satellite Launching Station in North Pyongan Province. It has served as the North’s main satellite launch facility since 2012.

The facilities include a building used to assemble space launch vehicles and a nearby rocket engine test stand where liquid-fuel engines for ballistic missiles and space launch vehicles are developed.

The site said that since these facilities are believed to have played an important role in the development of technologies for the North’s intercontinental ballistic missile program, these efforts represent a significant confidence building measure on the part of North Korea.

Trump told a news conference after his June 12th summit with Kim that the North Korean leader had promised that a major missile engine testing site would be destroyed very soon.

Trump did not identify the site, but U.S. media subsequently reported it was the Sohae Satellite Launching Station.